


New Lease on Life

by an_aphorism



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Demisexual Keith (Voltron), Established Relationship, House Making, M/M, Misunderstandings, Post-War, SFW BDSM ?, Shiro is going through it, two idiots in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:01:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28915776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/an_aphorism/pseuds/an_aphorism
Summary: Shiro knows he should just maybe have the conversation, but Keith’s... hard to read. Especially in areas of sex and romance. While Shiro is a hundred percent certain that Keith loves him and enjoys what they’ve been doing in the bedroom, Shiro can’t quite figure out if a turn toward a little more structured play would be welcome.So instead of asking, Shiro buys them tickets to an alien burlesque show.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 202





	New Lease on Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bog gremlin (tomatocages)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatocages/gifts).



> A gift for Grem who wanted a fun misunderstandings fic. I hope you enjoy!!!

The day after they sign the lease Shiro on a high of adrenaline and hope, purchases the show tickets that have been sitting in his digital cart for months. Everything between him and Keith has been going so, so well, there’s just this one last area that Shiro wants to broach. A sex-related area.

And he figures the best way to do it is to take Keith to a sexy show and see if he’s at all interested in the goings on.

On Shiro’s last mission he’d heard from some J-REshians about a show that had been just what he was looking for. Sexy, but also alien and therefore subtle enough for Shiro to play it off if Keith is very much not about it. 

Shiro knows he should just maybe have the conversation, but Keith’s... hard to read. Especially in areas of sex and romance. While Shiro is a hundred percent certain that Keith loves him and enjoys what they’ve been doing in the bedroom, Shiro can’t quite figure out if a turn toward a little more structured play would be welcome.

Keith would do anything for him, probably even humor him if he asked flat out for any of it, but Shiro doesn’t want to even inadvertently pressure him. Shiro’s had a wealth of time and sexual experiences to discover his own interest in BDSM and kink, but Keith hasn’t.

The show seems like an easy, low-pressure way to feel him out. Plus, if Shiro were more honest with himself, he’s a little curious about it. He’s seen plenty of human BDSM-related things, and is interested in seeing how the rest of the universe does it. There’s more out there surely, and Shiro’s always been one to want to jump into the unknown with both feet.

Shiro thinks about the tickets off and on all day as they moves boxes into their new home. He’s part excited and part nervous, but that’s also where Shiro thrives. He and Keith are partners even in risk, and Shiro loves that.

That evening when they’re sitting on their new counter and sharing pizza out of a box, he surprises Keith with the tickets.

“Oh, that’s soon.”

Shiro nods, trying to act more casual than he feels. “Thought we might need a break from the move-in by the end of the week.

“Sounds great,” Keith says, bumping his shoulder into Shiro’s affectionately. Sink or swim, at least Shiro’s taking the leap.

##

On Friday they shower, change out of their grimy clothing, and then Shiro flies them from Earth to J-REsh where the show is. They land, get quick assistance from a local, and then take a transport to the club. They manage to get there just five minutes late of the start time. One of the aliens, a tall and slender being with dark maroon skin and a pair of extra arms leads them in to their seats.

The lights are low and the stage curtains are just beginning to be pulled back. Shiro sits and immediately orders them drinks, his nerves are frazzled. He hopes Keith likes it, hopes that maybe on the way home they can talk about widening their bedroom activities. The website had promised _tatish_ in the show, which Shiro has on good authority is their way of saying kink.

Except what happens when the performers come on stage is more. So much more. It is, in fact, nothing short of full frontal porn. Even if the alien’s parts are vastly different and in a different locations from Humans, it’s obvious to Shiro what’s happening. He looks on half-aroused and half-horrified as one of the beings brings another onto the stage and begins dancing with them as they tie them up. Then they begin to fuck. There’s music, singing, and various props and stage decorations to dress it up, but at the end of the day it’s much more than a burlesque show, much more than the performative kink shows Shiro has seen on Earth. The J-REshians and the website adverts sold it so very, _very_ short.

By the time the performers pull apart, sated and sticky to take their bows, Shiro can barely look at Keith. He’s hot, wound up from watching the show, but also so very embarrassed to have brought Keith to a straight up porno without asking him.

He doesn’t know how he should play it. Tentatively he glances at Keith as the lights begin to come up.

“That was interesting,” Keith says mildly.

That’s… not what Shiro thought he was going to say. A tentative flame of hope or horniness flickers to life in his chest.

“Did you like it?”

Keith turns to him and his eyes are scrutinizing. Shiro tries to look less hot under the collar, but he’s not sure he’s succeeding.

“I’ve never seen J-REshians before, so some of it I’m sure I missed, but the music was good.”

Shiro blinks at him _. The music??_

 _“_ And the costumes. That harness thing was cool.”

He’s talking about the bit of aerial fucking that was done right in the middle of the show. _Cool_ is the understatement of the century.

Shiro swallows hard. “Uh, yeah.”

“Acrobatics are so hard, the Blades had some stuff like that, and I never could get the hang of it.”

_The Blades what—?!_

Before Shiro can question this, the bill for the drinks comes. It’s as Shiro is paying that he notices how much they are being noticed. The lights have come up all the way up, and other guests are beginning to recognize them, whisper and point. Specifically at him. Damn that Voltron Show. He really doesn’t want to be mobbed here of all places.

He would, in fact, like everyone to forget he was even here. Including himself.

“We can go,” Shiro says, standing.

Keith’s attention is elsewhere, at the stage where the performers have come off and are answering questions from the audience.

“Oh hey, looks like a Q and A, want to—?”

Shiro grabs Keith’s hands. “Another time.”

They make a quick escape, and it’s not until they’re back on the ship that Shiro feels like he can breathe again. Keith beside him has been quiet for the whole trip back.

“So, you like that sort of thing?” Keith finally asks when they’re halfway back to Earth.

Shiro almost swerves, it’s only a lifetime of pilot training that keeps him steady at the wheel.

“Uh. Yeah.”

“Oh.”

“That okay?” Shiro asks, turning his head to take a peek at Keith’s face. The man looks deep in thought.

“Yeah, of course. I just didn’t know.”

“Kinda hard to bring up.”

Keith nods. Shiro takes a deep breath in and out. He does a quick calculation of how the odds are of asking Keith his opinion before Shiro decides to throw caution to the wind. He’s already beat the _you only live once_ odds, so he might as well go for gold.

“Is that something you could be into?”

He puts his eyes back on the flightpath ahead just as he feels Keith’s swivel to look at him in return.

“Oh, uh. I don’t know, I mean… growing up I just never—“

It unexpectedly hurts. Keith is the love of his life, and Shiro would never ever want him to do something he doesn’t want to do, but hearing Keith stumble through a ‘No’ does hurt. Hurts in a way that makes Shiro realize he had really been holding out for a ‘Yes’.

Yikes.

“That’s okay,” Shiro cuts off the rest of Keith’s careful fumbling. “It’s not for everyone.”

He delivers it with enough cheer not to be off-putting to Keith. When they get back home, they go about their new bedtime routine and Shiro spends a few extra minutes in the shower getting over his disappointment. He’s not interested in hurting Keith in any way for not being into BSDM or kink, people like what they like, and he and Keith will have a wonderful life together without it.

It’s Shiro’s own fault for putting expectations on the table when he’d never actually asked Keith.

That night cuddling in bed as Keith talks through their new furniture deliveries for the house, Shiro feels the last of his disappointment fall away. He has Keith here with him, and at the end of the day that’s all he really needs. Him and Keith, in their own place at last.

It’s perfect as is.

##

“So, uh,” Keith interrupts a few days later when they’ve finally managed to get the kitchen in some semblance of useable organization. “I got you something.”

Shiro gets up from beneath the sink gingerly, knees sore. “Hm?”

Keith is there beside him holding out a poorly wrapped gift. He looks bright-eyed and a little nervous. Shiro takes it with a smile and then unwraps. Inside is a…

“It’s the soundtrack, from the show,” Keith blurts. “I figured if you liked it, maybe you would like something to remember it by?”

Several things occur to Shiro in quick succession. The first is that this is very obviously an olive branch because of Shiro’s poorly-disguised disappointment the other night; the second is that Keith has _severely_ misinterpreted the content of that show somehow; and the third is that Shiro cannot possibly correct him and out himself now.

 _Fuck_.

“Oh!” Shiro says. He sounds properly surprised because he is, _he is_. He remembers Keith’s throw away comment about liking the music. As if—as if it were a musical. _A musical._ “Thank you!”

He quickly folds Keith into his arms in a hug so he can have a few moments to wrap his head around this new information and not do any more damage with his lack of facial expression control. Keith has gifted him the soundtrack, like anyone would for a beloved theater show.

 _Stars_. Shiro loves, loves, loves him.

But now what is he supposed to do?!

When they part Keith has that shy smile on that always sends Shiro’s heart for a loop. It steals every thought out of Shiro’s head. He’d do anything to get Keith to look at him like that always.

In the end Shiro is a lovesick fool who can’t come clean, so they end up listening to the soundtrack as they put the grocery delivery into the pantry. It’s still a gift from Keith, and so Shiro is determined to adore it. Anything that Keith ever gives him should be cherished, even if it’s a porno-soundtrack.

What is his life?

While they organize, Shiro manages to have only four flashes of mortification at the sound memories the songs bring up, and he considers that a success. Keith every time he gets a glimpse of his face, looks proud of himself. It’s absolutely distracting.

By the time the kitchen is finished, Shiro is more than a little bothered by the sound memories and Keith’s overall Keith-ness. He herds his boyfriend into the bedroom for a mandatory break. As Keith cuddles close, kissing Shiro soft and slow, Shiro knows he is the luckiest being in the universe.

##

By the end of the second week, they are looking at new paint for the house. The light green walls that hadn’t bothered them on first glance now clash horrendously with their new furniture. Keith, who has a better eye for design than Shiro does, takes the lead.

It takes two days of sample testing paint for Keith to come up with one called Desert Morning. Shiro laughs when he sees the name on the order receipt.

“Did you pick the color for the name?” Shiro comes up behind Keith in the kitchen and wraps his arms around him.

The man smiles and flips the pancakes in the pan. “Maybe.”

“Dork,” he presses the word and a kiss into his shoulder.

“And another thing,” Keith says as he watches the pancake cook. “My turn for date night, so keep your Saturday night free.”

“Ah, putting off the painting then?”

Keith shrugs. “It’ll keep. Anyway, I know you’re dreading it.”

Shiro has been bemoaning the repaint job since they decided to change the color. They could have hired someone to do it, but by unspoken agreement they both decided to undertake all the house-making by hand. This house is theirs, finally something that is wholly, privately theirs. Shiro wants to protect that, even if that includes undertaking painting and the very time consuming and annoying edging.

“Treat first then,” Shiro mumbles, squeezing him.

Keith’s pancake goes to plate and then he’s lifting up a stack and offering it to Shiro. “Treat first.”

 _Stars_ , Shiro loves him.

##

On Saturday Keith pilots, but it doesn’t take long for Shiro to realize they’re going back to J-REsh again. The moment he does, his heart begins to pound. Shiro has to do his best not to actively have a reaction. Keith sitting beside him would catch it in a moment.

“Are we…?” Shiro has to ask when they’re coming into the planets orbit.

Keith looks pink cheeked but pleased as he takes the ship in for a landing.

“Before you say anything, I know you said it was fine that I didn’t like this. Um.” Keith pauses as he lands the ship. Once done he turns to face Shiro. “It’s just… it’s you and me now. And I want us to do things together, things more than just flying, work, and the gym. It’s really cool you knew about this show, that you brought me. I want to do more stuff like this— go out and have fun. Even if one of us doesn’t like it the most, I want to try, you know? I want to go with you to things you like, because I love you.”

Shiro blinks at him, struck hard by the rare show of earnestness. If Shiro had had the thought to try and come clean about the show, now—

Shiro swallows around the emotion in his throat. He’s not going to ruin it, not when Keith is looking like that and trying this hard to make him happy. Shiro will take this stupid miscommunication to his grave to spare Keith having to know. Porn shows are his new favorite musical, okay. Weirder things have happened to him in his life.

“I love you too,” is the only thing Shiro can even manage to say.

Keith beams at him so bright Shiro has to immediately lean over and kiss him. One turns into two, which turns into a dozen. When they finally do part and decide to get out of the ship, they’re ten minutes late for the show. Worth every second.

This time they’re seated in a different room, a smaller one. Just as Shiro is putting in their drink orders, Keith puts his hand on top of Shiro’s.

“Don’t panic,” Keith whispers low, “This one is interactive, but I made sure they wouldn’t choose you.”

There are multiple things wrong with that sentence.

“What?”

“I know you hated that part of the Voltron Show, being front and center,” Keith says.

That’s true, but—

The curtains open, and the first K-REshian comes out.

“What?” Shiro hisses.

Keith mimes a _shh_ motion, but Shiro can’t. Interactive?! What?

“Keith, I—“

And then the being on the stage is asking for a volunteer, and Keith is raising his hand. It happens so fast Shiro feels as though he’s experiencing stationary whiplash. He gapes, horrified as Keith is chosen. His boyfriend gets up, throwing Shiro a secret smile before going up onto the stage. All Shiro can think is, _he planned this and he doesn’t even understand what he’s really done._

What follows then is fifteen long, long minutes that are specifically designed to torture Shiro in the worst way. The show starts with a tutorial in harness tying, using Keith as prop. Keith is not undressed or touched in any manner that would be inappropriate, but Shiro is made to watch as some _other person_ wraps Keith up pretty in rope.

It’s devastating and infuriating at the same time. Coils and coils of rope are twined around Keith, drawing lines across his body, trapping his wrists together behind him.

If before Shiro’s thoughts on BDSM and Keith were hypothetical, now with the visual they are startlingly lurid. Keith looks calm as he’s tied up, and his eyes keep coming back to Shiro to make sure he’s watching.

As if Shiro could look away.

What he does during this little demonstration, is shift uncomfortably in his seat. He curses himself for this turn of events, for not telling Keith and allowing his boyfriend to be taken up on stage and tied up. He’s never going to be able to unsee this. It’s going to absolutely haunt his dreams.

The K-REshian finishes the tie and then does a showy _tah-dah_ to the audience. Everyone claps, and promptly they begin to undo the knot work. Shiro looks and looks, even as the jealousy fights with want inside his belly. He can’t believe that all these people have seen Keith like _that_. They shouldn’t be allowed, no one should except Shiro. If Keith is going to be tied up, it’s going to be Shiro who—

 _Fuck_.

He has got to pull it together. As Keith is untied, Shiro downs the rest of his drink and works on his breathing. His pants are much, much too tight, but there’s nothing he can do about that here and now. He needs to breathe, he needs to get a hold of himself.

He needs a cold shower.

By the time Keith comes off stage, Shiro is mostly okay. He’s at least breathing in regular intervals. It’s fine, all fine. They’ll get through the show and then go home, and Shiro will figure out some way to tell the love of this life about this.

Or maybe he’ll just black it out and never mention it ever again.

Keith’s glowing when he retakes his seat, eyes on Shiro for eager approval. Shiro’s not even sure what his face is doing, but he sure some of it is very, very approving. He is, however, grateful when the show picks back up and he has something to look at that’s not Keith. That path right now could lead him to very dangerous places.

Not that the show helps much as it transitions into full porn once more. When one of the aliens on stage is tied up and then sexually tortured, Shiro can’t help but think again of how Keith would look—

He flags the staff for another drink and downs it almost as soon as it lands on the table. The alcohol burns unpleasantly, and the coldness of the ice helps to cool him off.

Still, at the final bow and curtain call Shiro feels like he’s run a marathon. He’s tense, hot all over, and half wondering if Keith would be into maybe a little something before they fly home.

“So,” Keith says as the lights come back up. Shiro takes a gulp the water he’s gotten, and subtly adjusts himself so they can stand. “I also got us a tour.”

Shiro blinks at him. “A tour?”

“Backstage. When I called for tickets the person mentioned it and I thought…”

He thought that Shiro might enjoy a backstage look at a show he loves. Shiro would bury his head in his hands if it wouldn’t require explanation.

“Oh.”

“Is that…? I mean we don’t have to, if that’s weird.”

“No, no,” Shiro hears himself saying. He’s not going to let Keith feel bad when he is trying this hard to be into something he thinks Shiro enjoys. It’s wonderful, if applied to the wrong thing. “That sounds cool, I just didn’t know they did it.”

Keith perks right back up. “Me either.”

They wade through the crowd as people make their way out, heading to the small line on the side of the stage. This time there seems to be much less recognition amongst the crowd, which Shiro is forever grateful for. In the line their tickets are checked, and then they follow a K-REshian dressed much more conservatively than the performers were into the backstage area.

Shiro purposefully hangs back until they’re the last ones. He’s not often a lag-behind sort, but in this case he will make an exception. The tour guide takes them through the backstage area while giving a history of the building and the show. The guide talks about how it’s a _tatish_ show, which Shiro now understands does not mean what he thought it meant. The underselling of this on their website also makes him wonder if it’s a purposeful decision, if the advertisements are censored due to laws or taboos.

He wishes there had been some indication of what he was getting himself into though.

The tour comes to an end near the doors of what seem to be a gift shop. It catches Shiro’s eyes because of some of the very obvious sex toys they have hanging in the window.

“Now,” the tour guide says. “You can exit through the gift shop, but does anyone have any questions about the show or performers?”

A few hands go up. The alien picks someone near the front who asks about upcoming renovations.

“Yes, we will be closed next month for general maintenance and a new coat of paint, you can ask the front desk about specific dates.”

Shiro looks at the gift shop and wonders if it’s the only exit. Will he really have to take Keith through there?

The tour guide chooses another raised hand.

“I’m curious about the edging,” another patron starts. “It’s done so masterfully, how long did it take—“

Shiro makes a split-second decision and grabs Keith. They break off from the group and head toward the gift shop. Shiro doesn’t stop until the door closes behind them, blocking out whatever the rest of that question was going to be.

The edging was enough when Shiro watched it the first time, he doesn’t need more information.

“Shiro,” Keith says, a bit startled. “That could have been helpful information.”

They’re inside a sex store, filled to the brim with implements, but this statement still draws his attention.

“What?”

Keith nods his head in the direction of the tour outside. “I mean we are about to paint our new place.”

It’s such an odd thing to say that Shiro just literally stares at him a moment. Then his brain finally connects _painting_ to _edging_.

…

This has to be a joke. Either Keith is fucking with him or the universe is, and Shiro wouldn’t put it past either of them. Does Keith not know what edging is? Does Keith not know what most sex things are?!

They have sex, and Keith cannot be this naïve. Shiro quite honestly doesn’t understand how Keith is missing… the point.

“Uh,” Shiro says.

Keith only shrugs. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Anyway this is cool, we should get something before the tour comes so we don’t have to wait in line.”

“Uh,” Shiro says again.

Keith walks further into the store, and Shiro has no choice but to follow, gulping at the array of toys and sex-related paraphernalia for sale. There are some innocuous gift-shop items like shirts and keychains, but there’s also a whole wall of extremely alien dildos. At least Shiro thinks that what they are, he recognizes at least one from the show.

“I want to get something useful,” Keith says as he browses.

He’s in the trinkets area, and that seems to be the only thing keeping Shiro from blurting out the truth. If Keith were to go and try to buy a dildo without the literal knowledge of what he was doing, Shiro thinks that would swiftly be the end of this miscommunication. Shiro would just have drag him out and then humiliatingly explain why he did.

Keith browses for about five minutes, showing Shiro an odd glass globe, some hover dice, and a furry strip of cloth that Shiro is fairly certain can be made into handcuffs. Shiro gives middle of the road responses to all of them, telling Keith to get whatever he likes. Shiro just needs this whole thing to be over.

Keith settles on a candle, and Shiro follows him straight-faced to the check out. He does not inform Keith of alternative uses of candles in the context of a sex shop, and when they get home Keith puts it on their bedside table as one would a standard candle.

Shiro goes to sleep that night staring at that candle and has absolutely no idea how he let this go so far.

##

Shiro takes the cowards choice, and lets it sit. They wake up the next morning and have a list of house things to do, including the painting, so it’s easy to tell himself he’ll deal with it later. Right now, there’s work to do.

Days pass while they move furniture, tape, paint, move it all back. There’s still boxes in storage that they’ve waited to bring in, so once the painting is done in each room they bring those in, unpack and reorganize.

Shiro frankly just tries not to think about the whole situation. Eventually he will have to clarify to Keith that the show they went to was not musical theater, and neither was it something Shiro loved. Or at least not in the way Keith was thinking.

It makes him cringe to think about though. He got himself into the mess by doing something foolish instead of having a conversation, and he knows that’s exactly what Keith would say. _Why didn’t you just tell me?_

Shiro doesn’t have a good answer for that. He should have. He still should. It’s easy when it’s a real issue, anything serious. He and Keith have a relationship built solidly on trust, they would go to the ends of the universe for each other. Have, actually.

But the sex stuff makes Shiro feel young and foolish and insecure. He just wants it to go right, and he doesn’t want to make Keith feel bad if Keith isn’t comfortable or interested in the same bedroom things.

Above all Shiro doesn’t want Keith to think that he’s dissatisfied. If they never have sex at all Shiro would be okay with that, honestly. He loves Keith. Loves him so, so much. He already has everything he needs in this one half-painted and half-organized house.

So it’s best not to think too much on it.

They paint the bedroom, one of the last rooms, by the end of the week. In celebration there’s a date night planned tomorrow, this time by Shiro, and it does not at all involve a sex show. Shiro has guaranteed it. It will be a normal date, just him and Keith and some good food. 

Shiro grabs the last bedroom box from the garage. 

“Oh, hey!” Keith calls from the bedroom.

Keith’s in charge of organizing, but all day he’s been asking Shiro’s opinion on the placement of their bedroom things. It’s a small consideration that means everything. This is their little house, and they really are building it together.

Shiro goes into the bedroom where Keith has stacks of items all strewn about. At once Shiro sees what has caught Keith’s attention. It’s Shiro’s box of toys.

Sex toys.

Most of the more lewd ones are in a sealed box inside the cardboard, but the bigger things Shiro just threw in while he was packing. It’s all very obviously kink accoutrements from past lovers that Shiro neglectfully didn’t sort through or get rid of. Keith is now holding up a harness and looking excited.

“When did you boulder?”

Shiro opens his mouth to explain that it’s an old harness and with how expensive it was he couldn’t just toss it out despite how he doesn’t use it and—

And then Keith’s words permeate.

_Boulder?_

Boulder. Rock climbing. Harness—

It’s too much. It’s one too many things for Shiro. Does Keith really think—

“I don’t,” he says.

His voice is strange, firm but also too high. Keith’s eyes flicker down to the box, and he seems to really take it in this time. There’s an innocuous length of rope in there and some tape, but there’s also a flogger and some more harness materials.

“Keith.”

“Oh!” Keith drops the harness back into the box. “Not for rock climbing.”

“No.”

Suddenly it’s now or never. Shiro has to tell him, he can’t keep letting this go on. Shiro puts his box down and steps further into the room.

“I’m uh, into kink. Or was. Uh. Sorry, I forgot this stuff was in there.”

“O-oh.”

Keith expression is surprised, a little too still.

“You… haven’t mentioned,” Keith says eventually.

“Didn’t want to if you weren’t interested.”

This ushers a look of puzzlement onto Keith’s features. “What? Of course I’m interested.”

It’s Shiro’s turn to be confused.

“I mean I haven’t before. Um. Done this stuff,” Keith says. “But yeah, yeah I’m interested.”

Shiro steps closer, trying to find a tactful way to say what he absolutely must say at this point.

“You, uh. Didn’t seem that into it at the show.”

“The show?”

Shiro has known that Keith wasn’t getting what that show was actually about, but hearing it in words makes him feel the ridiculousness of the situation all over again.

“Yeah. Um. The sex show we went to. Twice.” The last part he adds for clarity.

Shiro wants to cringe.

A whole range of emotions run across Keith’s face then. Shiro can practically see him remembering, maybe casting those shows in a new light.

“Oh. _Oh fuck._ Those were—“

“Yeah,” Shiro jumps in. “Um. I wanted to see if you were into that kind of thing? I… it became obvious that you didn’t know what kind of show it was. I’m sorry, I should have just told you.”

“I mean, I knew they were like… sort of sexy?” Keith says. “But I don’t really find K-REshian attractive, so I don’t— wow.”

“I don’t either,” Shiro says, maybe a bit too quick. “Uh. It was still affecting. I guess you didn’t think so.”

Keith shakes his head. “Oh fuck, and then I bought you tickets again. I thought it was a… musical or something!”

Keith’s cheeks are red and he looks so embarrassed that Shiro crosses the rest of the distance and folds him into his arms.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. That’s totally my fault, I should have just told you. There wasn’t a good time, and then you were trying so hard to make it a good date.”

“Oh no,” Keith groans into his chest. “I let them tie me up.”

The way he says it gets a cut-off laugh out of Shiro.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he says immediately. “It’s just so ridiculous. But yeah. Um. You did.”

There’s another groan and Keith is pressing into him bodily. Shiro holds him tight, dropping a kiss on his head.

After almost a minute, Keith turns his head to speak again.

“Did you, ah, like it?”

Shiro clears his throat. He owes Keith some embarrassing candor. “Yeah. Yeah Keith. Seeing you like that was… affecting.”

“Hm.”

“I’m sorry again,” Shiro says.

“No, no. It’s fine. I mean I’m sure this whole thing will haunt my psyche for the rest of my life, but you know.”

Shiro laughs. “I’m genuinely shocked you didn’t pick up on any of this before. They weren’t subtle.”

“They’re aliens Shiro. And no offense to them, but they are not my type.”

“Well sure,” Shiro says. “But you know, porn is… well it transcends a lot of boundaries.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Keith says.

“Wouldn’t know?”

Keith shrugs against him. “I don’t really… it doesn’t really appeal to me. Watching people have sex.”

That’s news to Shiro.

“You don’t watch porn?”

Keith pulls away and they move to sitting on the bed.

“Not really?” Keith says. “I don’t really get the appeal.”

A thought pops into Shiro’s head then.

“But you like what we do?”

“Yeah of course.”

Dots are connecting for Shiro now at rapid speed. He feels frankly stupid for not considering that Keith’s attraction is person-specific. Shiro-specific. It makes so much sense, accounts for why he’s never seen Keith even look twice at anyone else. Never dated anyone else.

That thought shouldn’t make Shiro feel so smug, and yet that feeling crawls up into his chest and makes a home for itself there.

“Ah,” Shiro says. “So if I were to do any of the things they did at that show to you, you would be interested?”

He says it sort of as a joke, but then something on Keith’s face _shifts_. Shiro can practically see it hit him.

“O-oh,” Keith says.

He licks his lips. Suddenly Shiro’s heart is pounding for a completely different reason.

It’s like the other shoe has finally dropped. The reaction Shiro had been expecting when he took Keith to the show is here, now. It just required a different framing.

“That _was_ a sex show,” Keith says.

“Uh huh.”

It’s absolutely fascinating to watch Keith go through reimagining the show, putting Shiro in the place of one of those performers.

“Fuck,” Keith says. His hand slides across Shiro’s thigh. “You would tie me up?”

The words are a devastating blow. All the air goes out of Shiro’s lungs, and he realizes he’s leaning into Keith, closing the distance.

“Whatever you want.”

Keith’s eyes when they meet his are dark.

“We are finished painting,” Keith says.

“We are.”

“Break time?” Keith’s hand crawls up to the button on Shiro’s pants.

“Thought you’d never ask,” he says, before pushing Keith down into the sheets and kissing him.

**Author's Note:**

> Post-script:  
> Keith, tied up and having a marvelous time: Hey Shiro, if edging isn’t about paint, what is it about?  
> Shiro, a man experiencing all his dreams coming true at the same time: UM, probably what I’ve been experiencing the last three weeks. 
> 
> I'm @an_aphorism on twitter where I post a great deal of nonsense about boys kissing.


End file.
